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SEC Orders FINRA to Improve Internal Compliance Policies and Procedures
October 27, 2011--The Securities and Exchange Commission today ordered the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) to hire an independent consultant and undertake other remedial measures to improve its policies, procedures, and training for producing documents during SEC inspections.
According to the SEC’s order instituting settled administrative proceedings, certain documents requested by the SEC’s Chicago Regional Office during an inspection were altered just hours before FINRA’s Kansas City District Office provided them.
“The law requires FINRA to produce the documents the SEC seeks in its examinations in complete and accurate form,” said Gerald Hodgkins, Associate Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. “Although FINRA has previously taken steps to improve compliance, those enhancements did not go far enough to prevent the document production failure that occurred in its Kansas City District Office. This order will help ensure that FINRA effectively addresses the weaknesses in its training as well as its policies and procedures.”
view order
Source: SEC.gov
Pimco files with the SEC
October 27, 2011--Pimco has filed a post-effective amendment, registration statement with the SEC for the PIMCO Australia Bond Index Fund
PIMCO Canada Bond Index Fund
PIMCO Germany Bond Index Fund
view filing
Source: SEC.gov
CFTC will publish its own Volcker rule language, says Sommers
October 26, 2011--Supervisor will publish its own Volcker rule for consultation – although little progress has been made so far, says CFTC commissioner
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) will publish its own version of the Volcker rule for consultation, according to Jill Sommers, a commissioner at the regulator – despite the publication of a notice of proposed rule-making by four regulatory agencies on October 11.
read more
Source: Risk.net
Analysts change tune on US GDP, now see solid Q3
October 26, 2011--After months of dire predictions for the US economy, including warnings of a new recession, forecasters are singing a different tune.
Projections for an extremely weak third-quarter have been shredded and replaced with a fairly upbeat assessment of the quarter that just closed last month. Economists say they put too much stock in the sharp decline in consumer confidence and the extreme turmoil in financial markets sparked when Standard & Poor's stripped the nation of its AAA credit rating in early August. "At that point, we based our forecasts on the fact that all the indicators were turning downwards, not knowing that was the trough," said Millan Mulraine, senior macro strategist at TD Securities in New York. "We underestimated the pace of momentum that was building in the economy at the time."
read more
Source: Todays Zaman
Reforms are essential for Brazil to build on recent success, says OECD
October 26, 2011--The Brazilian economy has made a rapid recovery from the global economic crisis, but further reforms are necessary to boost long-term growth, spur investment and further reduce poverty, according to the OECD’s latest Economic Survey of Brazil.
“Sound economic policies have helped Brazil weather the global financial crisis, but even more remarkable is the unprecedented progress being made on social goals including poverty reduction and inequality,” said the OECD Secretary-General, Angel Gurría. “We believe Brazil can achieve still higher, and more inclusive, growth over the medium term, provided policymakers meet the key challenges facing the economy by building momentum for further reforms.”
The report projects that GDP growth will slow to less than 4 percent over the coming two years, which is below trend rates of 4.5 percent annually, but well above the average for OECD countries.
view the Overview of the Economic Survey of Brazil 2011
Source: OECD
Van Eck files with the SEC
October 26, 2011--Van Eck has filed a post-effective amendment, registration statement with the SEC for the
European Currency High Yield Bond ETF (HYE).
view filing
Source: SEC.gov
Canada warns EU to not rank oil sands as dirty energy
October 25, 2011-- Canadian Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver on Monday decried a European Union proposal to rank Canadian oil sands as a more polluting fuel than conventional oil.
In a letter to European Union Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger, the minister said the proposed the proposed Fuel Quality Directive is not backed by science, would violate the Union's trade obligations, and put at risk the West's energy security.
"Canada will not hesitate to defend its interests," Oliver wrote.
read more
Source: EUbusiness
CFTC Staff Allows Taiwan Futures Exchange’s Futures Contract Based on the GreTai Securities Market Capitalized Weighted Stock Index (“GTEX”) To Be Offered and Sold in the United States
October 25, 2011--The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's (CFTC's) Office of General Counsel today announced that it issued a no-action letter on October 24, 2011, permitting the offer and sale in the United States of Taiwan Futures Exchange’s futures contract based on the GTEX.
The GTEX is a broad-based, free-float, market-capitalization-weighted composite index of highly capitalized and actively traded stocks listed on the board of the GreTai Securities Market, a non-profit organization modeled after the NASDAQ. The GTEX index provides a performance benchmark for the Taiwanese over-the-counter securities market. As of September 12, 2011, the total adjusted market capitalization of the GTEX was approximately US $52 billion.
read more
Source: CFTC.gov
Global X files with the SEC
October 25, 2011--Global X has filed a post-effective amendment, registration statement with the SEC for the
Global X Social Media Index ETF.
view filing
Source: SEC.gov
ISE Introduces ISE Implied Volatility and Greeks Feed
October 25, 2011 -The International Securities Exchange (ISE) has introduced the ISE Implied Volatility and Greeks FeedTM, a joint offering from ISE and Hanweck Associates. Powered by Hanweck Associates’ high-performance VoleraTM engine, this feed provides real-time, low-latency, tick-level options analytics for all equity, index and ETF options traded on the nine U.S. options exchanges.
ISE offers the ISE Implied Volatility and Greeks Feed through an intuitive data feed format that allows the seamless integration of the data feed into trading and risk-management applications. The Volera engine uses state-of-the-art hardware acceleration to calculate options’ implied volatilities and risk parameters in real time. These analytics are distributed by ISE in a streaming, multicast feed.
“As an exchange operating within the options space for over a decade, ISE already possesses a unique capacity for managing large amounts of data and ultra-high message rates,” said Jeff Soule, Head of ISE Market Data. “With the ISE Implied Volatility and Greeks Feed, subscribers can effectively access critical data to carry out their trading and risk management strategies without having to manage the infrastructure and computational burden required to process such a large dataset.”
”Accurate, real-time risk management is paramount in today’s volatile markets,” noted Gerald Hanweck, CEO of Hanweck Associates. “Since 2007, Hanweck Associates has been generating advanced, real-time options analytics for sophisticated options professionals – under some very demanding market conditions. The ISE Implied Volatility and Greeks Feed is a leap forward in delivering high-quality, real-time risk analytics directly to market participants as an exchange datafeed.”
To learn more about the ISE Implied Volatility and Greeks Feed, visit www.ise.com/greeksfeed.
Source: International Securities Exchange (ISE)
